Today (July 4) marks the 75th anniversary of one of history’s worst air disasters, which took place above Northwood in 1948.
When a Douglas DC-6 of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (RAF) collided in the skies, all 39 people on both flights were killed.
The SAS aircraft was flying a regular international scheduled flight from Stockholm to Northolt with 25 passengers and seven crew.
The two aircraft collided about 6.4 kilometres north of Northolt Aerodrome. An investigation later found that the RAF plane was above the civilian one, which was climbing. The wing of the SAS plane penetrated the starboard side, and both aircraft crashed into a wood below, immediately going up in flames.
At the time, this was the most lethal aviation accident in the nation, and to this day stands as the worst mid-air collision recorded in the UK.
If you have any historical photos of Northwood or Ruislip, please send them to us via email at newsbase@mynewsmag.co.uk and they could feature in a future edition of the magazine.
0 Comments